The evidence that covid can dysregulate the immune system is — at this point — extensive, though not well-publicized. A close eye on covid-related subreddits will reveal — with surprising frequency — posts asking about, or describing, anecdotal experiences with this. Here are over a dozen:
Dear old friend, trusted confidant, colleague (take your pick) of many years before this thing called #Covid came for almost everyone—
—almost everyone but me and my fellow rebellious information- and situation-privileged weirdos and outcasts who still wear an #N95 or at least #KN95 around anyone outside their household, that is, plus some tiny unstudied group of people who seem to have true sterilizing immunity—
I’m having a hard time lately with this damn #pandemic and you’ve always… 🧵
"Four years ago this week, Donald Trump claimed that the U.S. had 'met the moment and … prevailed,' not over COVID-19, but over the test shortage that had hobbled the nation's response for over four months as the virus spread around the world and across the country. As with most things Trump said about the pandemic, that was a lie."
"People who misunderstood airborne spread needlessly wore masks on outdoor walks and veered off sidewalks to avoid their neighbors."
people have closed face-to-face distance on me incredibly fast, and I was caught scrambling to put on a mask, when I could otherwise have already been wearing one
I had the full dose of AstraZeneca, was happy with it. The side effects (for me) were mild.
The chair of epidemiology at Deakin University in Australia, Prof #CatherineBennett, said the #vaccine had played a pivotal part in the worldwide fight against the virus, particularly in the early days of the #pandemic when limited vaccines were available.
Periodic friendly reminder that the Covid pandemic is not over, kiddos! We're still All Up In It, and a new variant is starting to make the rounds. Wear your mask in public. Don't go out or to work if you're feeling even a little sick. No, a negative Covid test does not necessarily mean that you don't have Covid. No, a negative Covid test does not mean you aren't contagious. No, a negative Covid test does not mean "it's just allergies".
If writing to legislators is your kind of thing, now might be a good time to remind them that we still 100% need unlimited free Covid tests, vaccines, and paid medical leave.
Robert Reich sketches the context, the troubling period of history, in which students are graduating from college:
"My students are graduating at a tremulous time.
The largest campus protest movement of the 21st century. The first criminal trial of a former U.S. president. The most restrictive abortion laws in the nation. Two horrific wars."
What emerged in 2 interviews w/ #Trump, & conversations w/more than a dozen of his closest advisers & confidants,were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape #America & its role in the world. To carry out a #deportation operation designed to remove >11M people from the country…he would be willing to build migrant detention camps [#ConcentrationCamps] & deploy the #US#military…
He is weighing #pardons for all of his supporters accused of attacking the Capitol on #Jan6, >800 of whom have pleaded #guilty or been #convicted by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an attacked #ally in Eur or Asia if he felt they weren’t paying enough for its defense. He would gut the US civil service, deploy the #NationalGuard to US cities as he sees fit, close the WH #pandemic-preparedness office, & staff his Admin w/acolytes who back his false assertion the 2020 election was stolen.
"So much of this, as other writers have said, is about class in America. The Times’ Covid coverage has frequently tilted toward the needs of white and wealthy readers—ones who could sequester away at home or in their country houses during the height of the pandemic, whose kids went to schools with new ventilation systems and Covid testing and for whom the pandemic response was just good enough."
"Between Jan 3 and April 28, 2023, 317 tissue samples were collected from 225 patients. [...] Our findings suggest that residual SARS-CoV-2 can persist in patients who have recovered from mild COVID-19 and that there is a significant association between viral persistence and long COVID symptoms."